Gay Couples Celebrate California Decision; Both Sides See a Fight

Ellen Pontac, left, and Shelly Bailes reacted to the court's decision in San Francisco.Credit
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Gay and lesbian couples in San Francisco rejoiced on Thursday over a State Supreme Court decision affirming their right to marry even as political leaders on both sides of the issue girded for an extended fight over the ruling in the courts and at the ballot box.

Hundreds of people showed up at San Francisco City Hall, including some women in wedding dresses and at least one carrying an open bottle of Champagne.

“It’s just amazing to feel like I am a full citizen — I am not a second-class citizen,” said Christmas Leubrie, a nurse, who was with her partner, Alice Heimsoth, across the street from City Hall on the steps of the Supreme Court Building.

Gay rights organizations said the decision was a watershed moment for their movement, which has found greater societal acceptance in recent decades but continued opposition in some quarters toward same-sex marriage.

“Today will go down as a true turning point,” said Geoff Kors, the executive director of Equality California, a gay rights advocacy group. “It really is a very powerful message that love trumps hate and hope trumps fear.”

But the battle in California is not over. Opponents of same-sex marriage said they had gathered 1.2 million signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would define marriage as between a man and a woman, and effectively undo the Thursday decision.

Those signatures are being inspected by county officials under the direction of the secretary of state. For a constitutional amendment to pass, the ballot measure must be approved by a majority of voters to amend the state’s Constitution.

Robert Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which argued against same-sex marriage before the California court, said opponents might seek a stay of the decision until voters could take up the issue in November.

Mr. Tyler said he was especially troubled by the court’s drawing on a 1948 ruling that overturned a state ban on interracial marriages.

“Where is the court going to rationally limit marriage if it’s not a union between a male and female?” he said. “There is no evidence to establish that a homosexual lifestyle is an immutable characteristic such as race.”

California becomes the second state to allow same-sex unions, after Massachusetts. Forty-one states have laws prohibiting same-sex marriage, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a nonpartisan institute, while 27 states have constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage or defining marriage as a union between a man and a women.

Florida will vote on a constitutional amendment this fall, and Arizona is also considering putting the issue on the ballot.

The Thursday decision was cause for celebration for Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, who set off a national debate over gay marriage in 2004 when he ordered the county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. More than 4,000 couples — from 46 states — married in 2004, though those unions were later invalidated by the courts.

“What a day for San Francisco, what a day for California, what a day for America, what a day for equality,” Mr. Newsom said before a crowd of several hundred jubilant supporters at San Francisco City Hall.

Mr. Newsom said his office would begin preparing for same-sex marriages as soon as the court decision became effective in 30 days, if no stay was issued. Unlike in 2004, the new decision affects same-sex marriages statewide, something that the mayor seemed relieved and vindicated by.

“This is not just San Francisco now,” he said shortly after the decision was released. “It’s Redding. It’s Auburn. It’s Long Beach. It’s the southern part of the state. It’s Riverside. It’s Fresno — that this is now appropriate and legal.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has vetoed past bills aimed at legalizing same-sex marriage, issued a brief statement saying he would not support a constitutional amendment that would overturn the court’s ruling.

“I respect the court’s decision,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said.

The Assembly Republican leader, Mike Villines, said that the court’s decision was a disappointment, but that he believed California voters would affirm that “marriage should be between one man and one woman.”

In 2006, a Field Poll found 51 percent of Californians disapproved of same-sex marriage, while 43 percent approved, though approval rates have been increasing over two decades.

At the city’s ornate City Hall, though, the mood was ebullient, as dozens of same-sex couples stood behind a beaming Mr. Newsom and other city officials and several hundred people cheered from the floor and balconies. Nearby, in the city’s Castro neighborhood, a touchstone in gay America, impromptu parties erupted at midday, and were planned well into the evening. The city’s tourist board issued congratulations, encouraging visitors “to celebrate the freedom to marry in San Francisco.”

Ellen Pontac, who had driven to San Francisco from Davis, about 70 miles northeast, with her partner, Shelly Bailes, to witness the decision, said she was thrilled, but still not totally satisfied.

“This is what should happen, it’s so simple, so clear,” she said. “I used to say that all I want is the same rights that a 14-year-old girl in Arkansas has. We can’t have them federally. But we will.”

Carolyn Marshall contributed reporting from San Francisco.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Gay Couples Celebrate; Both Sides See a Fight. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe